Ogunquit, Maine: Ogunquit Museum of American Art

Dawny G

Sunday

Nov 5, 2017 at 11:52 PM

Tales from the Trail has been on break at home while regrouping and exploring some new activities. 'Home' can be as interesting as travel. Recently the Tourist at Home took a day trip to Ogunquit at the invitation of friends. This is a happy reminder of the great places to visit that are right outside my door (so to speak).

Our main focus is the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA). I haven't been to Ogunquit in a while, and this is my first visit to the Museum that overlooks Narrow Cove, the beautiful rocky Maine coast, and the vast Atlantic Ocean.

Henry Strater, a 'Lost Generation'* artist, opened the museum in 1953. While the museum is only little over sixty years old, its permanent collection of art works--from sculpture to photography--goes back to the late nineteenth century.

The Museum's sculpture garden greets us.This Vermont marble statue, Life Entwined, is the 1988 work of Antoinette Schultze. Just beyond this couple stands the Man of Assisi, a mixed metal sculpture/ fountain by John Dirks, who in 1988 was also the director of the museum. (I'm afraid the flowing water isn't obvious in my photo.)Man of Assisi by John DirksA little closer to the building, Bernard Langlais' Lion protects the museum and his territory. Unfortunately, I didn't get the name of artist of this work in front of the museum, or of the sculpture in the photo below it.

After a visiting some of the exhibits, we take a break on a bench to once again enjoy the garden and look at Life Entwined from yet another angle, I can't resist taking a picture of a butterfly who seems to be enjoying the same type of moment.

Life Entwined with butterflyFounder Henry Strater and the Lost Generation*'The Lost Generation' comprised those who reached adulthood during World War I. More often, the term refers to American writers and artists who were involved in the war in some way--in the service, as reporters. After the war, Paris somehow maintained its reputation as a center of art, culture, and music (in spite of all the city had just endured). This attracted Americans like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. E. Cummings, Ezra Pound and others, who had lost some faith in the 'American Dream' and felt disconnected from post-war USA.

Henry Strater was often exasperated by the fame he acquired as a friend of famous writers instead an artist in his own right. When the OMAA opened, Strater specified that he intended the museum to highlight the work of the visual artists of his time. # # # * Gertrude Stein first used the term 'Lost Generation' to Ernest Hemingway to describe the Americans who had gone to Paris after World War I. Hemingway then used in in The Sun Also Rises.

For handicapped visitors: there are walkways surrounding the museum making it possible to enjoy the sculpture garden and water views. I did not notice wheelchair ramps, but generally I never encountered more than 3 steps between rooms/galleries, so a visitor with a walker could probably find help moving the walker, and anyone who can use crutches can negotiate the entire museum.